Signing of the National Covenant


1638

An important protest against a long-running attempt to draw the Scottish Church together with the English Church, headed by the King and governed by Bishops. King Charles I (1600-49) regarded protests against his reforms and new prayer-book as treason, forcing Scots to choose between their church and their King. A covenant, swearing to resist these changes to the death, was drawn up by clergyman Rev. Alexander Henderson (1583 - 1646) and lawyer Sir Archibald Johnston (1611-63) and signed in Greyfriars Churchyard in Edinburgh. The covenant was taken by thousands of Scots and led to an extended period of discontent, which eventually became armed revolt, not resolved until the Revolution Settlement of 1690.


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